Diablo 2 just turned 20

[octavius]

I think it will be hard to find a month that surpasses June 2000, when Deus Ex, Icewind Dale and Diablo 2 were released.

 

[Desiderius]

OST-wise and in respect to FMV narration, I'd say D2 outstrips even IWD. And IWD is Jeremy Soule + David Ogden Stiers. So that's how highly I rank D2's music and narration.

No contest with sound effects either

Still remember hearing Diablo I for the first time. Went into a game store to buy some packs of Revised and some dude was playing it behind the counter on his laptop. Ended up watching him play for like half an hour. Was actually kind of intimidated and didn't play I until after II. Never been anything like it before or since.

 

[Theldaran]

TBH, The Butcher or whatever was the first demon boss in Diablo 1 was quite something. "Ahhhh fresh meat". Not only did he make quite the entrance, but it was an adequate challenge.

I'm sure today he would make the millennials cry. As well as being too violent for the current hippie times.

Here's a little up-to-the-times vidya, with exploit included (back then we would kill him fairly):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICvV83ZkD_E

 

[octavius]

The Butcher would be problematic today. "Ahhhh fresh meat" hints of cannibalism, and portaying people as cannibals is a racial stereotype and we can't have that.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

The Butcher would be problematic today. "Ahhhh fresh meat" hints of cannibalism, and portaying people as cannibals is a racial stereotype and we can't have that.

Even more problematic if you're playing as a female character. You know whats worse than portraying cannibalism as a racial stereotype? Misogyny.

"This fat creep in his basement just called me fresh meat, find out who wrote this character and cancel him!"

 

[Butter]

It's also fat-shaming. You can't play as a morbidly obese character, and the only one you encounter is portrayed as evil.

 

[Daemongar]

I think it will be hard to find a month that surpasses June 2000, when Deus Ex, Icewind Dale and Diablo 2 were released.

I was there, man. I remember I bought IWD at the time and it was receiving a lot of hate. Folks wanted another BG1 - not a stylized Hack-n-slash. But damn, the maps and music were art!

But Diablo 1/2 was a different animal. It brought a lot of folks into "rpgs" for good or bad. Diablo 2 - I'm going to go out on a limb and say it may have been the most addictive RPG ever created. Not for me, but I'll tell you a little story from my past. I was a computer consultant around the time of D2's release. Windows 98 reigned supreme, folks were still happily using Netscape, and some folks had pine/elm/usenet for email and discussing rpgs. Lots of folks still had modems, or 768k/128k DSL for high speed internet. It was a happier time, when Internet Explorer was being shown for the pile of crap it was and embedding it into the OS proved to be the gateway for a million attacks.

I was doing computer work for a government agency. The "IT Manager" would play Diablo 2 all day, while I did his job for him. He was psychotic, with magic find everything and complete green sets that he'd make me look at! Want a kick in the balls? His office got infected with a virus. It hit 400 computers. So I spent a week visiting every computer on his network with a 3.5" floppy boot disk cleaning each system by hand while he sat on his ass playing Diablo 2. Eventually, I was forced (to keep this client) to get power-leveled by him and his friends up to a level 67 Barbarian in one Saturday, complete with cow level. I never felt so sleazy. Wait, it got even sleazier when I traded my rare items to him, pretending like the shit he was giving me in return was a good deal.

It got even worse when Dark Age of Camelot was released, but that's another story.

 

[Daedalos]

If it turns out, that Blizzard has absolutely nothing good for the Diablo 2 anniversary this year, they will have lost the fans forever.

It's never been a more opportune time, than to reconcile hurt feelings from past years, than this year in terms of the old school pc fanbase.

Knowing nu-blizzard, they will of course, fuck it up royally. Derpy remaster or nothing at all.

 

[TemplarGR]

Guys, just install the Reign of Terror mod for Grim Dawn. It is actually quite good for nostalgia purposes. I wasted myself last night playing till 5AM. A necromancer, what else?

 

[Robber Baron]

Grim Dawn's art direction is so generic though

 

[ERYFKRAD]

playing as barbarian

 

[TemplarGR]

Grim Dawn's art direction is so generic though

I never said it was perfect. But at least it is higher res and more fluid to play.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

The Butcher would be problematic today. "Ahhhh fresh meat" hints of cannibalism, and portaying people as cannibals is a racial stereotype and we can't have that.

FAT LIVES MATTERS

Wishing You well dear Diablo, i can't wait for part IV. Year 2000 , june was magical to me , D2, IWD, Deu-ex, holy moly.

 

[Outmind]

Sure D2 was prettier, longer, and had better-defined classes, but the original Diablo will always be a superior gaming experience to me.

Nothing like it existed before, and I've found few games to this day that could match its atmosphere. I remember enthusiastically talking with my brother about it and him saying how he kept playing one night when I'd fallen asleep. The night was moonless, some dogs were barking in the distance, and he was totally creeped out. We joke about Garbaad, The Butcher and Zar the mad till this day. Hell, my brother even knows most of the halls of the blind poem by heart even though he never bothers memorizing such things.

The music and sound effects were phenomenal, and the atmosphere in the cathedral was totally on point. Everything in that game came together to transport you into that grim world on a level that was impossible before it and which the second installment just couldn't surpass for me. Diablo 2 was a better game, but it left much less of a mark than the original did.

 

[DraQ]

Grindan, inflation, MMO-lite, repetition, inflation, derpy unatmospheric shit ruining previously quasi-medieval-European setting.

Spoiler

Yeah, it looked quite nice, had awesome cutscenes, pretty decent item mechanics and not bad art direction. Too bad about everything else.

For most part, D2 is really well paced and it's a game that you can beat in 2-3 evenings. Today, The fixed number of so few quests per chapter, would certainly be met with savage outcry from "moar content!!!" crowd. But it is exactly the modest number of tasks available, that maintains the feeling of constantly building up tension across all the acts.

Even there D1 has it beat because its quests and monster roster were randomized and you couldn't just grindan other than explicitly restarting with the same character. And given truly random (as opposed to grind/twink until you get specific shit you want) drops, you had to shape your build around odds and ends available.

 

[luj1]

derpy unatmospheric shit

Please nigger

 

[Namutree]

Sure D2 was prettier, longer, and had better-defined classes, but the original Diablo will always be a superior gaming experience to me.

Nothing like it existed before, and I've found few games to this day that could match its atmosphere. I remember enthusiastically talking with my brother about it and him saying how he kept playing one night when I'd fallen asleep. The night was moonless, some dogs were barking in the distance, and he was totally creeped out. We joke about Garbaad, The Butcher and Zar the mad till this day. Hell, my brother even knows most of the halls of the blind poem by heart even though he never bothers memorizing such things.

The music and sound effects were phenomenal, and the atmosphere in the cathedral was totally on point. Everything in that game came together to transport you into that grim world on a level that was impossible before it and which the second installment just couldn't surpass for me. Diablo 2 was a better game, but it left much less of a mark than the original did.

I'd argue that D1, with it's many rogue-like elements, is something of a different RPG genre than D2, and one I much prefer. People talk about how much better D1's atmosphere is, and that's 100% true, but there's a lot more D1 does better than D2 than that.

I like that the enemies don't respawn so you can't just grind your way through the game. I prefer that you don't know what items and tomes you'll get, and have to adjust your build accordingly, rather than decide literally everything about your entire build/playthrough in the very beginning like in D2.

I like that D1 is actually reasonably challenging, rather than being a total cake walk like D2.

I like that magic items aren't dropped every 5 seconds so when you find one it feels special, unlike D2.

Diablo 2 has a million clones, feels like Diablo 1 never even got a real sequel. Oh well, such is life.

 

[octavius]

I like that D1 is actually reasonably challenging, rather than being a total cake walk like D2.

Huh?

 

[DraQ]

derpy unatmospheric shit

Please nigger

Suddenly desert catgirls! Because.

 

[jackofshadows]

I like that the enemies don't respawn so you can't just grind your way through the game. I prefer that you don't know what items and tomes you'll get, and have to adjust your build accordingly, rather than decide literally everything about your entire build/playthrough in the very beginning like in D2.

The only difference is that in D2 you can't actually save in a single mode. But you can start over in D1 with the same char any times you want and venture let's say in catacombs right away if you did unlock entrance before. Same way you can farm gold, buy any amount of books and learn your skills up to 15 etc.

I like that D1 is actually reasonably challenging, rather than being a total cake walk like D2.

Did you know that both games has 3 difficulty? Something tells me you're talking about D2 normal which is a cakewalk for any char/build but it's just a beginning of the game, basically.

 

[Namutree]

I like that D1 is actually reasonably challenging, rather than being a total cake walk like D2.

Huh?

Diablo 1, is a much more difficult game that Diablo 2. Hard to believe I need defend such a position. Diablo 2 is laughably easy, I was able to complete it without any problems as a 10 year old who didn't even know what he was doing.

Acid Spitters can wreck your shit if you're not careful. Plague Zombies can permanently lower your stats if they hit you. You know who can wreck you in D2? No one. All the enemies are easy and pose no threat.

Just the butcher fight alone in D1 is harder than anything in D2. In Hell (D1) you could easily be killed if a few enemies get the drop on you, whereas in D2 not even a large hoard can stop you from just running away and healing. In D1, if you get surrounded, you're basically dead and enemies can effectively stun lock you.

 

[Mastermind]

with mage d1 was a cakewalk once I got a few decent spells. later in the game i would just buy apocalypse staves, use them + recharge until there were just 1/1 charges left, sell them, then use the money + money i picked up on the way to buy more apocalypse staves. use normal spells for small threats, apocalypse for everything else. i apocalypsed diablo to death when i got to him.

 

[Namutree]

The only difference is that in D2 you can't actually save in a single mode. But you can start over in D1 with the same char any times you want and venture let's say in catacombs right away if you did unlock entrance before. Same way you can farm gold, buy any amount of books and learn your skills up to 15 etc.

That's the new game+ feature. You can definitely exploit it, but that's not how the game is designed or balanced, and is basically cheating. That said, even if we count new game+ feature, it's still harder than D2.

Did you know that both games has 3 difficulty? Something tells me you're talking about D2 normal which it is a cakewalk for any char/build but it's just a beginning of the game, basically.

I would indeed consider the 'normal' difficulty the standard game. The other difficulties are just New Game + features. Which is fine, I guess, but they aren't the continuation of the game, but a new game mode. The story/quests/areas, ect are all the same. The difficulty is just bumped up for those looking to squeeze more entertainment from a game they've already completed.

Kind of annoying tbh that D1 and 2 never gave us proper difficulty modes, just a New Game + feature they called difficulty.

 

[Grotesque]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Diablo-2-C...815628&hash=item4b787b42bc:g:p8YAAOSwSPVeoKXO

 

[Namutree]

with mage d1 was a cakewalk once I got a few decent spells. later in the game i would just buy apocalypse staves, use them + recharge until there were just 1/1 charges left, sell them, then use the money + money i picked up on the way to buy more apocalypse staves. use normal spells for small threats, apocalypse for everything else. i apocalypsed diablo to death when i got to him.

Most people struggle heavily with the mage, especially early on. You used the most over powered class, but even with him the game is tougher than D2.